Zhou Ning hurriedly dialed Mr. Qu’s number, briefly explained the situation, and asked Mr. Qu to notify Xu Dayuan. Not long after, as footsteps approached, soone knocked on the door. Zhou Ning opened it and stepped out.
"They’re conducting an inspection inside; let’s talk in the next room. We need to thoroughly interrogate this manager—he must know who has stayed here."
Ma Liang grabbed Liu Liwei by the collar and dragged him along with Xu Dayuan and the others to the first room on the south side. Panicking, Liu Liwei struggled, but no matter how much he squird, he couldn’t escape Ma Liang’s grip.
"I don’t know anything, I just know that this room is reserved for the film and television company’s long-term use. They don’t register at the front desk when they co, nor do they inform us unless they need the room cleaned. Otherwise, no one dares to enter here."
Xu Dayuan snorted and raised his police terminal, displaying Liu Tiesong’s information.
"Do you think police are here just to goof off? You and Liu Tiesong are cousins not removed more than five generations. You got your job here on the 24th because of this connection. Let think, Assistant Liu from the group, Liu Sina, she’s your sister, right? What a small world to run into three mbers of the Liu family all at once.
I don’t know how many more people from your Liu family are in the group. Whether Liu Tiesong reserved this room or who has stayed here can be checked against the surveillance. It was under your instructions that interfered with Li Mubai, informing him that the flight attendant left, wasn’t it?
Don’t tell you don’t know. I’m giving you a chance now. We’ve checked the surveillance. You can match the footage with the person yourself. Whether you speak or not doesn’t matter much anymore. It’s up to you whether you want this chance or not."
Liu Liwei remained silent, not uttering a word, just staring fixedly at Mr. Qu’s laptop.
Mr. Qu had already copied all the surveillance footage from the 24th, but unfortunately, on the second and third floors, there was only one cara near the stairwell in each corridor. Limited by the angles, they couldn’t capture the entire hallway.
On April 27 at 19:07, at the stairwell on the second floor, Li Mubai carried a black 24-inch suitcase upstairs, followed by a woman in a short skirt, with wavy long hair cascading over her shoulders and a slim figure. When she turned her head, her forehead appeared round, her nose prominent, and her jaw sharp.
With just a glance, Zhou Ning was certain that this was the deceased, Shen Shuyi.
Then at 19:10, Li Mubai was seen on the phone hurrying down the stairs. His pace was quick. Mr. Qu adjusted several caras and finally found images of Li Mubai in the Stone Building’s lobby, courtyard, and at the entrance. The phone call did indeed last quite a while.
At 19:32, Li Mubai hung up, seemingly exhaling a long breath, and then straightened his clothes before returning to the second floor.
He hadn’t been upstairs for a minute when he hurried to the stairwell, speaking toward the south side. It wasn’t possible to see whom he was talking to. Then Li Mubai ran downstairs.
He searched around the lobby and the courtyard before running to the entrance. Seeing no one in the security booth, he then proceeded to the front desk, which was unattended. The person they had identified earlier, Zhang ng, approached Li Mubai. Although he was not skilled in lip reading, Zhou Ning still made out a few words.
Zhang ng asked, "Sir, may I help you?"
Li Mubai asked her a series of questions and gestured extensively. At last, he held up his phone, showing a photo. Zhang ng seed to realize sothing, covering her mouth before talking and gesturing at length, making phone and luggage-tugging motions. Then she pointed outside the courtyard. Li Mubai appeared frustrated, slapping his own head hard.
He hurriedly continued to make phone calls. Watching this, Zhou Ning’s brows furrowed tightly, and he quickly pointed at the surveillance cara at the stairwell on the second floor.
"Play this cara again from 19:10 to 19:32. We were focusing on Li Mubai’s movents earlier and didn’t watch it thoroughly. Don’t fast forward, play it carefully."
Mr. Qu nodded and quickly adjusted the footage to the correct ti before clicking play. After Li Mubai left the fra, the screen was empty. At 19:14, Shen Shuyi ca from the north side, without her luggage, just clutching her phone while twirling her hair and looking toward the stairs as if to go down. That’s when Shen Shuyi suddenly paused, turned, and looked towards the south corridor, nodding and smiling politely before hesitating and then heading south.
After that, there was no movent on the screen. At 19:18, Liu Liwei briskly ran up and hurried towards the north side. Within two minutes, pressing his earpiece and talking, he quickly went down the stairs, empty-handed. This discovery made Zhou Ning pause.
Mr. Qu also let out a surprised exclamation.
"Eh, I thought he went to handle the luggage, but he wasn’t carrying anything!"
Zhou Ning shook his head, signaling him to keep playing. This ti they sped up the playback, but until 19:32 when Li Mubai ran upstairs, the stairwell cara continued to show nothing.
"Fast forward, just this one cara."
Mr. Qu filled the entire screen with the playback of this single surveillance video. Li Mubai ca up again, and everything quieted down. At 21:31, a male server carrying two large trays ca up. The trays were stacked, with four dishes wrapped in cling film and so bowls and chopsticks beside them.
Following him was another server holding a soup basin. The two headed towards the south corridor together. After a while, they returned empty-handed. Near the stairwell, the two seed to chat leisurely before taking out their phones to play.
At 21:57, Liu Liwei ca upstairs. The two servers quickly stood up. Liu Liwei scolded them and led them towards the south corridor. Not long after, they ca back carrying the trays and so leftover food. Following Zhou Ning’s instructions, Mr. Qu quickly clicked pause.
"Count how many bowls and pairs of chopsticks there are."
Mr. Qu counted.
"Four bowls and three pairs of chopsticks. I’m dizzy with how many people might have eaten here!"
Zhou Ning didn’t respond. The delivered dishes were plentiful, including a soup, with two bowls for drinking soup and two for eating. Among the three pairs of chopsticks, if one was serving chopsticks, then it made sense. In other words, there might be two people in the room.
He gestured for Mr. Qu to continue, and ti swiftly passed by.
At 23:45, Liu Liwei ca up, holding sothing in his hand, heading towards the north side, and at 23:47 he went downstairs with a black plastic bag.
"See where he went? That shape looks like a 24-inch suitcase, very similar to the one Shen Shuyi had."
They paused the surveillance video and switched to the one downstairs to find Liu Liwei carrying it directly out of the Stone Building, loading it into a car, and then driving away.
Upon seeing this, Zhou Ning dialed Xu Dayuan’s cell phone.
"Director Xu, interrogate Liu Liwei. It looks like he disposed of Shen Shuyi’s suitcase at 23:47, carrying it in a black plastic bag downstairs and then leaving by car."
"Got it. Go next door and see how Mr. Zhao and the others are doing."
Zhou Ning humd a response and hung up the phone without rushing to act.
"Continue, go back to the second-floor surveillance and fast-forward. Pause if there’s any personnel movent."
Mr. Qu hastily clicked to play, speeding through the footage rapidly.
After dawn on the 28th, there were quite a few people going upstairs, but only three n headed toward the south side corridor of the second floor, two of whom were still the waitstaff that had co to deliver als at noon and in the evening. As for the other man, he didn’t draw their attention, given that he was pulling a suitcase and yawning as he walked.
When the ti jumped to April 29th at 5:22, soone ca upstairs, holding a large suitcase almost the size of 29 inches. The person was very tall and burly, heading straight for the south side corridor.
The suitcase, swaying in his hand, seed empty from the way it swung.
At 5:37, the man ca out, pulling the suitcase. He reached the stairwell, retracted the suitcase handle, squatted down, lifted it, and in doing so, he staggered a bit. Then he hastened downstairs, to the first floor with the suitcase, out the main entrance, and at the entrance steps, the man even hiked up his pants before he continued to carry the suitcase.
He went downstairs, loaded it into a car, and drove away, with Mr. Qu capturing the car’s number plate.
Continuing to watch the second-floor surveillance, at 6:17, two fully equipped n ca out from the southern corridor. Even in such weather that wasn’t cold at all, they were still wearing snapback hats, overcoats, and pants, and went directly downstairs.
In the lobby’s surveillance on the first floor, they captured images of the two. The n were about the sa height, one with a larger belly, the other very thin, then they got into a car.
"Mr. Qu, check the license plates. Also, check the surveillance before 19:10 on April 27 to see if there are any images of them coming in."
Mr. Qu operated two laptops at once, and in no ti, results appeared on both. The vehicle belonged to Huajin Film and Television Company. The entrance footage showed up at 18:32 on April 27.
Both n were dressed the sa as they were when they left the next morning. The one who brought them over was the sa burly man lifting the suitcase in the early morning. Judging by their wavering steps, both had clearly had quite a bit to drink.
As they turned around on the second floor, the hat of the man with the big belly fell off. The burly man helped pick it up, and in the mont he looked up to put the hat on, Mr. Qu captured his face, adjusted the image, and started a search in the system. In a short while, the search results appeared.
Only one result ca up. Seeing the na, Zhou Ning squinted his eyes.
"It’s Liu Tiesong!"
Mr. Qu nodded.
"Boss, should we call Mr. Zhao and the others next door? Do we no longer need to collect thoroughly over there?"
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"I’ll take a look myself. You search the information for the two vehicles and see where they went on the night of the 27th and in the early morning of the 28th. If we can locate the body with the direction we have, we will have leads in this case. Right now, it’s pointless to say anything. If we can’t find the body, we can’t determine the nature of this case."
As Zhou Ning walked outside, he dialed Xu Dayuan’s cellphone and entered the room next door. Everyone there stopped their work and looked at Zhou Ning. Zhou Ning briefly explained his recent findings and the process of having Mr. Qu search for the vehicles’ whereabouts.
Hearing to the end, Xu Dayuan also couldn’t help but shiver.
"Have Mr. Qu send the screenshot of the license plates. I’ll get Mr. Liang and his team to contact the traffic police departnt. Whether we can find the dumping site or not, we must at least ascertain the current specific locations of the two vehicles and three individuals. As for the investigation, let’s put a hold on it."
"Okay, you continue with the interrogation. Liu Liwei and Liu Sina could know sothing. Liu Sina might be covering for Liu Tiesong, but since Liu Liwei was willing to dispose of the suitcase, he must consider it a trivial task, perhaps not his first ti doing this kind of thing."
After hanging up the phone, Zhou Ning looked at Mr. Zhao and the others.
"How did the inspection go?"
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